FOUR BOYS QUIT SCHOOL FOR GOLD PANNING

By
Mafaro
at
June 14, 2019

Four Bulawayo pupils have quit school and fled to Filabusi
to pan for gold. The four Form Two boys, classmates at Sikhulile High School,
disappeared from their homes last Thursday under the guise of attending
after-school sports activities in the afternoon.

One of the boys’ grandmother sent as SOS — to a church
WhatsApp chat group seeking advice on how to search for her 14-year-old
grandson — Somzi — after he didn’t return home from school.

“Linjani zihlobo,
thina koMoyo silahlekelwe ngumzukulu uSomzi. Usuke ethi uyaku ku-cricket kodwa
engayi khona. Ngivuke ngidinga kubangani bakhe kodwa kungathi babaleke beyi 4,
abafana bonke balapha Emakhandeni. Amahungahunga athi bathi baya e-mine,
singazi ukuthi yiphi leyo mine. (How are you relatives, we, the Moyo family,
cannot find our grandson Somzi who left home saying he was going for cricket
practice. When I could not find him in the morning, I discovered he had run off
with his friends from Emakhandeni suburb. Rumours are that the boys have run
off to a mine, although we have no idea which one),wrote the grandmother, Olipha Moyo.

Church members advised her to alert the police.A police report was made at Entumbane Police
Station by the families of the runaway boys. However, on Wednesday morning —
six days after the boys disappeared — Moyo told B-Metro that her grandson and
another boy had returned.

The other teens are said to be holed up in Filabusi.

“He came back yesterday with just one of the boys that he
left with but he won’t say much about their whereabouts for the last couple of
days except to say that he will never do it again.

“The other two boys are said to be still at the so-called
mine. I’m just glad my grandson is back at home, safe and sound, he doesn’t
have any physical injuries. His parents live and work in South Africa,” she
told B-Metro.

She said she was advised by church members not to be too
heavy handed on the youngster lest he runs off again.